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| Google Map view of Þeistareikir geothermal power plant |
At a meeting this morning, the Icelandic government approved a resolution, allowing work to resume on a power line project from the Þeistareikir geothermal power plant to the industrial area Bakki, near Húsavík, North Iceland, RÚV reports.
A dispute had arisen between the government and Landvernd, the Icelandic Environment Association, about whether environmental laws passed less than a year ago should be retroactive and, thus, able to halt projects already approved. A decision by a ruling committee for environmental and natural resource issues was being awaited, but the project was temporarily halted last month.
The project planned at Bakki is PCC’s silicon plant, but the initial environmental assessment assumed that an aluminum smelter would be raised there. The latter requires much less energy than an aluminum smelter would have, and, thus, Landvernd argues, the power line project that has been approved exceeds the one needed in terms of size.
